First, this is one of the more difficult posts I have ever composed.  Before I continue, I confess I had to examine my own heart, my motives behind writing this post.  I continue not out of glee that it seems that the mighty, the arrogant, may fall, but that perhaps lessons may be learned, that we understand that methods matter.

The back story…

I used to attend a large mega-church, NewSpring Church, based in Anderson SC.  I have never had much church experience  and found NewSpring to be quite exciting with the loud music from a talented band, slick and creative video presentations, all fronted by a charismatic, funny, and edgy pastor.  After two or three years, however, I began to notice some things about this church that unsettled me, and after phone call with an assistant pastor, I was compelled by my convictions to leave NewSpring.  More one my experience can be found here.

Fast forward a few weeks.  NewSpring began a promotion for an upcoming sermon series that featured bill boards of a somewhat controversial nature.  A professor at Anderson University, located in the same city as NewSpring, authored the following article in the local newspaper, One My Mind – NewSpring Billboards Offend Local Resident. Given the influence of NewSpring within the community, there was, needless to say, a bit of controversy surrounding that article.

Fast forward a couple of years.  The author of the aforementioned article resurrects a blog titled Pajama Pages .  The content in its initial incarnation was dedicated to political issues, but the author, James Duncan,  turns the focus more to the errors and inconsistencies within the seeker sensitive church growth movement, focusing specifically on two or three representatives, Perry Noble’s NewSpring Church, Steven Furtick’s Elevation Church in North Carolina, and occasionally Gary Lamb, former pastor of Revolution Church in Canton, Georgia.  All are of the attractional church model and take pride in being edgy, hip, relevant.

I do not remember how I stumbled upon that blog, but I found, to a degree, some vindication for my concerns about NewSpring and churches of its ilk; I was not alone in my concerns.  I expressed such on a comment to a post on Pajama Pages wherein I left a link to my blog post I referred to earlier.  As an aside, someone forwarded my blog  post to Chris Rosebrough of Fighting For the Faith which lead first to a mention on his show.  A  few weeks later, I was given the opportunity to  be interviewed by Chris.   Here is a link to that interview.

Moving on.  Pajama Pages apparently became a thorn in the side of the leadership of NewSpring.  The leadership has long been, I think, insecurely hyper-sensitive and dismissive of criticism, even that which is well-founded and thoughtful.  Though Perry Noble and others in the leadership often claim to never read or pay attention to critics, the subject of criticism is, ironically, a constant subject on his blog and is often mentioned in his sermons..   Such brings the veracity of their claims to never read or focus on their critics into question. Too, there are not-so-subtle inferences bysome in the leadership  that anyone critical of NewSpring or Perry Noble is perhaps not a Christian.

Then comes the bombshell, this post at Pajama Pages.  It is rather long, but worth the read.  I read it yesterday, and I am still numb from the implications.  Here, too,  is NewSpring’s side of the story. Compare and decide.

In that post from Pajama Pages, we find a tale of dark, gleeful, sordid vengeance on the part of a NewSpring staffer member and volunteers.  We find what seems to be tacit approval on the shameful attack on James Duncan and his family by some staffers of NewSpring.  There was an attempt to terminate Mr. Duncan’s employment, to smear him with tales of debauchery, and a thwarted adoption. Mr Duncan feared for the safety of his family.  NewSpring’s response to Mr. Duncan allegations and concerns is to lawyer up with a hired gun from Texas rather than meet with him personally.

What we find is the fruit of a culture of arrogance bred by the upper echelons of NewSpring’s leadership.  We find an abdication of pastoral leadership and responsibility on the part of Perry Noble.  What we find is a worldly pride, a festering arrogance, fostered to great degree by modeling the church on business and marketing practices and using business metrics of success rather than those Christ-centric ways and means authorized in the Bible.   Perry’s blog is subtitled Leadership, Vision, and Creativity.  I would  venture that two of those categories are not necessarily Biblically defined qualities of a pastor, but more that of a business CEO.

I hope that NewSpring’s leadership is humbled and bought to repentance by this sad affair. I pray for Mr. Duncan and his family, too, that they be strengthened by this ordeal. What ever you think of discernment blogs and those who run them, Mr. Duncan is not deserving of the treatment meted out by those involved at NewSpring. If NewSpring continues in this trajectory, they may find themselves in competition with Scientology in how they deal with dissent. I want NewSpring to be an instrument used in proclaiming the Gospel and growing disciples, but there is a need for true reformation and humility within it’s walls.

Addendum of 12-08-09: Here is a link to Chris Rosebrough’s interview with Mr. Duncan.

One of the most frequent questions I get asked in my training sessions around leadership is how to balance leading staff, managing their performance and coaching their development without losing the integrity of any one of these activities.

Many managers have grown up through the ranks amongst the teams they lead and the transition from team member to leadership is rarely an easy one to navigate.  I have even listened to a number of leaders downplay their role in order to retain the warm and comfortable relationships they have previously enjoyed with their erstwhile peers.  Whilst this shows a great and laudable degree of empathy and support for their people, it can be tough to lead from the middle and it’s worth making the essential psychological step of recognising that if your name is on the door with “manager” written underneath…then you cannot help but play your part.

There are a number of things that can hold leaders up in this transitional period.  The first comes from the fact that many leaders are promoted because they are the best at their particular role;  They are great with customers, they thrive on the challenge, they bring in the highest sales.  They are motivated primarily by the desire to do a brilliant job and gain recognition for that.  Sadly, the recognition they often receive is a promotion to a role where they are no longer the highest performer, they do not speak to customers or have nice numerical KPIs with which to measure their performance.  In short, the very activities that lead them to love their job, are now done by the people they are expected to motivate and manage.  Many many leaders then find it all too easy to slip into treating their people like an extra pair of hands and try to achieve through demonstration, advice and micro-management.  They want to stay close to the action and be in control and their teams respond in one of two key ways: they become dependent and simply follow, or they feel constrained and play up or leave. Helping new leaders to shift to leading rather than managing means finding them new goals and new measures for success and helping them to understand the new behaviours that will enable them to develop the autonomy of their teams and performance on a higher stage.

The other thing that holds back new leaders is the fear of not being taken seriously by staff who may often have applied to the same position that they have been granted.  Such managers resort to passivity and platitude rather than authority and leadership and often create the very conditions that they fear. It is not easy to juggle empathy with authority but one sure way to maintain closeness with your team at the same time as providing sufficient separation to retain authority is to engage in coaching discussions.  I’m not talking here about one to one long term therapeutic sessions or once a year performance discussions, but simply the day to day act of listening and facilitating rather than telling and directing.

Whatever your history in the organisation, you will have a different perspective and different information than the person you are leading.  Most managers I have trained find it almost impossible to avoid using that perspective to provide answers and suggestions as the first response to staff questions.  If you can hold back all your incredible wealth of knowledge and experience and instead adopt a coaching curiosity, you may be surprised to find that your team have the capacity to advise themselves…and that the added confidence they gain from you biting your tongue so that they can explore their own potential means that you get more time to lead and less time spent managing. It may not be as instantly gratifying or self-assuring…but it will make you a more inspirational and connected leader in the long run.  You may also be surprised how much less your people need to be “managed” and motivated by you and how instead they take accountability for their own performance.

A wise, strong, and effective leader is one who listens.  LIstening is a high-level skill that requires conscious attention and practice.  The most effective listening has the following qualities:  presence, awareness, intent, equanimity, and wisdom.

Listening with presence.

Listening with presence means offering another person our complete attention. We set aside all agendas and close off all distractions in order to be fully available to the other, making them our top priority in the moment. Our focus is wholly upon the other person — their words, their feelings, and their ideas.  We offer them full access to our empathy, encouragement, wisdom, and support.

Listening with presence conveys acceptance, affirmation, and validation to the other.  When a person’s experience is validated, they become empowered. The leadership of presence  imparts a fundamental gift to the other person — their deep self receives a powerful message of acceptance and validation. This core affirmation opens doors of self-understanding and self-acceptance.

Listening with awareness.

Effective listening requires an emptying of the mind.  As we clean our mental slate — of the previous minute’s content, of our mind chatter, of all things extraneous — in preparation for listening, we bring ourselves into the present moment. We become fully available to the other, ready to receive what the other has to say.  An active listener resists the temptation to fill the mental waiting line with pre-scripted words. The mind is hungry, impulsive, compulsive, and busy. It takes discipline to keep our focus on what the other person is saying.  If we catch ourselves planning out a response as the other is talking, our task is to release those words and resume listening.

On another level, we become more powerful listeners as we are able to identify and set aside our own biases, preconceived notions, opinions, and projections, both those of ready awareness and those under the surface of the conscious mind. This level of listening requires self-knowledge, self-awareness, and a certain command of the will.  It asks that we spend time uncovering our assumptions and examining our unconscious programming. It requires a vigilant monitoring while we listen, a keen notice when our biases are at play, and an ability to disconnect from these biases — biases which open the door to judgment and thereby shut down the process of authentic discovery.  At the same time, the effective listener is adept at knowing when and how to apply those very beliefs, biases, and opinions to the process of insight.

Listening with Equanimity

Listening with equanimity means bringing a dispassionate objectivity to our listening. Leaders cultivate the ability to observe, understand, and support while not getting caught up in the matter.  This detachment allows them to “hold” a place of balance and possibility for the other to find. Listening with equanimity is like being the center of the hurricane or the still vortex of a spinning wheel. Without any reactive energy coming from the listener, the speaker’s energies can dissipate and their points of view can transmute to new understanding.

Listening with equanimity involves practicing both non-judgment and non-attachment.

When we listen without judgment, we offer the other freedom to authentically and courageously explore their ideas and beliefs.  We present a posture of openness which conveys a readiness and willingness to receive whatever the other person has to say.

When we listen without attachment to the content or the outcome, we stay with the unfolding process of discovery.  Our personal issues don’t interfere with the other person’s process.  We can be a compass pointing to true north.

Listening with equanimity is one of the greatest gifts we can offer another person, because as we hold a space of objectivity and inner balance, we invite the other person to that place as well.  Powers of insight and conviction come from this place, and the good listener transmits this power to the other.  As the Buddhists say,  equanimity is “the ground for wisdom and freedom and the protector of compassion and love.”

Listening with wisdom.

Listening with wisdom means listening with all the resources of one’s knowledge base at hand, but also with a clear and open channel to one’s intuition.  Wisdom combines outward knowledge and inward knowing.  A skillful listener knows how to balance these two sources of insight; knows how to hover at the doorway to each simultaneously; and knows how to access the most relevant insights and lay them before the other with care.

A wise listener will tune in to all aspects of the other person:  their thoughts, feelings, beliefs, energy, and spiritual self.  Wisdom identifies the connecting threads between these aspects of the other and is able to follow the threads to their origins and key connecting places.  Wisdom is insight operating on the deepest and most complex of levels; but mysteriously, it arrives at profound simplicities of truth.  Moreso, it guides others to their own revelations of truth.

Listening to empower.

The most effective leader listens in order to serve and empower.  Listening is a dynamic process, a highly engaged activity of both the intellect and the heart.  Each opportunity to listen to another person is an opportunity to consciously practice and strengthen these attributes of leadership. Ultimately, the greatest gift becomes the ability to listen more deeply and truly to oneself.

Still from “Jack: Straight from the Gut” page 29, paragraph 3.

“When people make mistakes, the last thing they need is discipline.  It’s time for encouragement and confidence building.  The job at this point is to restore self-confidence.  I think “piling on” when someone is down is one of the worst things any of us can do.  It’s a standard joke during GE operating reviews that if one of the business CEOs is getting heat and someone in the room jumps on the bandwagon, the staff team will typically pull out the white hankerchief, toss it in the air, and flag the person for piling on.

Piling on during a weak moment can force people into what I call the ‘GE Vortex’.  It can happen anywhere.  You see the ‘Vortex’ when leaders lose their confidence, begin to panic, and spiral downward into a hole of self-doubt.”

I saw this in practice recently.  I made a doozie of a mistake – one of the biggest in my career.  My CEO, instead of coming down hard on me, actually came out in defense of me, and supportive of my track record and character.

This made all the difference.  I ended up winning the deal, and delivering an exceptionally strong quarter.

I just started reading “Jack: Straight from the Gut” which is the Autobiography of  Jack Welch.

In the first few pages of the book (page 5 paragraph 4 to be precise) I found something I had to share.  He’s talking about his mom’s early influence on his life:

“Perhaps the greatest single gift she gave me was self-confidence.  It’s what I’ve looked for and tried to build in every execitive who has ever worked with me.  Confidence gives you courage and extends your reach.  It lets you take greater risks and achieve far more than you ever thought possible.   Building self-confidence in others is a huge part of leaadership.  It comes from providing opportunities and challenges for people to do things they never imagined they could do – rewarding them after each success in every way possible.”

I will probably refrain from blogging for awhile. I even toyed with the idea of deleting this blog, but decided not to do so, at least for the time being.  I increasingly think myself to be utterly unqualified to speak on weighty things. I also do not want to entertain any narcissism,and blogging, for me, can provide a temptingly fertile soil for such.  You see, I am a not very good Christian.   I am at times self-righteous and and prone to be an idolater.  I am often foolish in speech and action and prone to be self-absorbed.  I often beat myself up over my sin and shortcomings.  But I am redeemed by my Saviour, Christ Jesus.  In the end, that is all I got.  That is absolutely all I got to cling to, and I have to preach that to myself daily.  All I have is the fact that I can stand before my Maker because my Redeemer took upon Himself my sin.  He lived a sinless and obedient life for me and took my sins upon Himself on the cross.  He rose again, in time and space, in history, and defeated death.  Simul Iustus et Peccator (simultaneously sinner and saint) , I am not living my best life now.  That comes later.  What I am learning, thought, is that I have a great High Priest who intercedes for me.   I was dead in my trespasses, but my Redeemer breathed life into me, brought me to faith, to belief, to a trust that He is sufficient.  When I am weak, He is magnified.  If Christ uses the weak and foolish to confound the strong and wise of the world, then I hope I am His man.

Here are a few thoughts with which to give either the closing punctuation this blog or at least a pause:

• Are we more weighed down by the sins done to us than by the sins we have done to others, or for more importantly, against God? Do we truly ponder the gravity of of our rebellion, even as redeemed saints, in light of a holy, sovereign and righteous God? Without a heart broken and contrite over one’s sin, piety can be hollow and may be followed and fueled by a cold, self-righteous moralism. Each and every one of us is to varying degree a recovering Pharisee with a propensity towards  self-pity, self-righteousness,  and self-agrandization.

• No matter how bad we think our circumstances, in light of our innate fallen nature, we deserve no better. Why do we Christians complain about our supervisor at work, about our job, our financial worries, our relational issues, our health when each breath is a gift? To do so is to proclaim to God, “I deserve better than what you have given me!” And I am guilty. The lines do not always fall into pleasant places, and God is still sovereign, good, holy, righteous, and merciful. Our Redeemer knows we are made of but dust and our life is but a vapor. He knows, in His absolute sovereignty,  how we feel and what we are going through.  The Triune God uses trials mold us as a potter’s hand molds a lump of clay.  And He gives us good gifts and joy, too.

• Sometimes we have truly been wronged by others and the consequences linger for longer that we think necessary or fair. And sometimes our thoughts linger over such longer than necessary.  Grace does not abound in those places.

• When we long for righteousness, when we groan over sin, both ours and that of others, and I hope that is something no saint ever grows beyond experiencing, we know that He is near to a broken and contrite heart. The Messiah, the Word through Whom all things hold together, intercedes for us to the Father. He does not break the bent reed nor extinguish the smoldering wick.

• The one who is forgiven much, loves much.

• I do not think people often meet the Jesus they most profoundly need when all they are presented with is a Redeemer who’s overarching goal seems to be meeting all our felt needs and making sure we are happy and make good decisions..  Sadly, many are satisfied with that misrepresentation of Jesus who has a ‘wonderful plan for your life’. Sadly, I think this is the Jesus presented in many American churches.

• Expanding on that previous bullet point, I just  recently listened to three sermons from rather influential pastors.  Two of the sermons were on tapping into some inferred, innate leadership ability that resides in all of us. In a nutshell, the sermons go thusly: because we all know Jesus was a great leader, great insight into leadership principles can be gleaned from examining His methods.  We need to discover and apply those leadership lessons to our lives as our lives intersect with others.

• (Warning: engaging rant mode) Without exception, in each of the sermons, the pastor spent most of his time elaborating on personal anecdotes and experience as well as referencing secular books on leadership principles. Without exception, and like most every thematic sermon on felt needs, each pastor started off with a pet project and with good intention and then twisted and distorted whatever Scripture was used out of its intended use and context. I am no genius, but I do know how to read. I see when context is ignored. What I see in each of these sermons is a grand adventure in missing the point of the text and jumping off onto pet projects of felt needs, of reducing the grand narrative of the Bible, the story of Creation, Fall, and Redemption through Christ, into a self-help manual.

• Here, too, is a portion of a sermon I listened  to  from on of the guys who  gave the leadership seminar/sermon:

Your God is so great that when Moses asked Him in Exodus 3:14 what’s Your name and who shall I tell the Israelites who sent me, God could not confine Himself to a particular description so he announced His presence by saying “I AM who I AM.”  I love that! You can’t box Me in. I AM who I AM. The old King James versions says, I AM that I AM. I think that a good interpretation of that statement into into a modern translation would be…”What ever you need, thats what I AM.” “I AM that. That’s what I am.”

This section of the sermon goes on a bit about how God is there to meet your financial, emotional, and relational needs and then concludes thusly:

“He is. He simply is so maybe we should just say today…God is…. fill in the blank. What do you need. Thats what He is.“

Now, the rest of the sermon was not completely without merit or without Gospel implications, but to say the that God’s ontological disclosure of I AM who I AM means ‘I AM whatever you need me to be’ tends to reduce God to a servant to our felt needs, a God who seems to exist  to make us feel good, to make us happy.  God is not as concerned about our happiness as much as we are.  He is more concerned about our sanctification.  I think broad swaths of the church makes much of God making much over us almost as much as they make much of God.  Whew…..

I would really love to hear these guys try to exegete the book of Jeremiah.  If they did, it would  probably end up being a sermon on finances. leadership, sex, or marriage  Yea, I know I am being a bit cynical, but the only time I heard hard things from these guys is when they preach their ubiquitous messages on tithing, and even then, the message usually ends up massaging a felt need, a desire for financial blessing.  Also, what stood out in stark relief for me is how much these guys talk about themselves on stage. Perhaps more than half of each sermon consisted of humorous  stories of their childhood or some personal anecdote that was somehow used in sometimes tenuous ways to segue into the theme of the speech. And if they are not talking about their life experience, they often talk about their church and its history. I remember listening to a pastor state that he was going to preach on a passage of Scripture from the Sermon on the Mount, but God told him to preach on the history of his church instead. That was not God, but ego,  speaking to the pastor and instructing him that His word is to be trumped by a narrative on the  pastors empire.

Without conscious intent, what happens in a purpose driven and market driven church is it ends up personality driven. They often reduce the objective truth of Gospel to a personal, subjective narrative of some nebulous ‘life change.’ And you know what, these pastors seem like truly nice guys. I believe treat their friends and family well.  They are kind to animals and pay their taxes.  They are well-intentioned.  And sometimes God uses such men in spite of their error.

And I am finished listening to bad sermons.  I do not know why I subject myself to such other than to practice discernment.  I guess too, I am more deeply nourished by and thankful for sermons of substance after having imbibed sugary sermons that in the end do not satisfy.

When Joseph and Mary arrived in Bethlehem it was crowded with travelers. When they tried to get a room for the night they were told there were no rooms available. Joseph knew that he couldn’t just give up; surely there must have been somewhere to stay for the night. Knowing that Mary could go into labor at any moment he kept searching.

Providentially, an inn keeper who knew that it would be nearly impossible to find shelter gave them permission to spend the night with the animals. Some might call this a lucky break, but I call it a providential accommodations. Sure, it would not have been their first choice, but they accepted the invitation and made their way to the stable. One could easily imagine God the Father rolling out the red carpet for the advent of His royal Son. But that wasn’t his plan. If it had been His plan, Jesus would have been born in a palace and wrapped in fine linens. Yet, he took his first breath as a human infant in a lowly stable and spent his first night in a feeding troth wrapped in swaddling clothes (i.e. rags).

Jesus was born in humble means, and he would model what humility is and how it plays out in everyday life. It was He who said, “I came not to be served, but to be a servant.” The gospel narratives depict Christ as one who was willing to take up a servant’s towel and with a basin of water wash the soiled feet of his disciples. Throughout his public ministry he served others by meeting their physical needs and teaching them about the kingdom of God. No doubt His greatest act of humility was that of taking up His cross and laying his own life down so that sinners like us could be forgiven of our sins and adopted into God eternal family. You may be thinking how does this relate to me? I don’t possess the power to cast out demons, to heal the sick, to restore sight to the blind, nor do I have the authority to forgive sin.

Sometimes I think we Christians underestimate the spiritual power that we do possess. The Apostle Paul believed and taught that we can do all things through Christ whose strengthens us. The “all things” consist of those works that God has set before us to do! Those works will require a level of humility that is ours in Christ. For it is the presence and power of Christ working in us (through the Holy Spirit) that motivates and empowers us to humblly serve others. This is critical, for Christian leadership, whether in the home, at the office, on the job site, or in Christian ministry.